HAMMELL
The HAMILLs or O'HAMILLs form a branch of the Cenel Eoghain (i.e. the O'NEILLS), found mainly in Armagh and Monaghan, Ireland. A few of the HAMILTON families so called are really HAMILL. The name HAMMILL (and variations HAMILL, HAMMEL, HAMAL) is also thought to originate in the Old English name of HAMEL, which meant "scarred or mutilated". The name may also have Norman origins.
Our HAMMELL line in Australia begins with Denis HAMILL, born in Belfast, Ireland in 1790, to John (a farmer) and Margaret. A weaver by trade, Denis was sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for life, for repeated offences as a highwayman. Denis arrived in Sydney in 1814 aboard the Three Bees.
In 1818 Denis wed another convict, Maria COURTNEY. Maria is a bit of an enigma. In 1816 she was caught in Berwick on Tweed, near the Scottish border, coining and passing sixpences. Along with her accomplices Margaret and Barnard DUFFY and Mary and James MOEN (sometimes MOON), she was found guilty and sentenced to death. All five sentences were commuted to life transportation to New South Wales. The men were transported on the Shipley in 1817. The women were transported on the Friendship, arriving early in 1818. The report of the trial indicates Maria was family with Margaret and Barnard DUFFEY, who were Irish. So was James MOEN. The group did not reside in Berwick on Tweed, but were passing through. They had been there only a few weeks, and would have been moved on earlier, but for the bad weather.
Maria was using the name Mary not long after she married, and died as Mary HAMMELL at Wallis Plains (now East Maitland) in the Hunter Valley in 1827.
Their story begins in Denis HAMILL of the Three Bees, continues in Sixpence and Denis HAMILL and Maria COURTNEY. The story of the first generation Australian HAMMELLs is outlined in The Road to Mudgee.
Government officials spelt Denis's surname in several different ways over his lifetime. By the time of his death in 1860 the present spelling HAMMELL had been adopted, although there were later deviations in other descendant branches.
Links to:
Hammell Home page; About me; About our ancestors; My favourite web sites.
